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I Didn't Ask for Your Opinion

Martha Meredith’s interest in psychology stems back to high
school and her love for having conversations with people about their feelings.
As someone who puts a lot of weight onto self-awareness and self-growth, it
seemed like a natural path.

Since studying psychology at Queen’s University in Ontario,
she learned a lot about other people as well as herself. She wanted to focus on
the actual understanding of how people think and better grasp the concept of
the human condition and human nature and which parts are biological or
societal. Although she didn’t focus on psychology after college, she brought
everything she learned over into her other passion: music.

Under the moniker For Esmé, Meredith’s songwriting had
her delving into topics that relate back to psychology and ultimately
discovering something new about herself with each song she wrote. In being able to recognize verbal and
non-verbal aspect of her studies, she began to write about her experiences and
her feelings in a way that speaks beyond a stereotypical song.

Righteous Woman
didn’t intentionally start as a concept album. The songs started as topics
Meredith wanted to address – “To Love” is about missing someone but also
recognizing the feeling of empowerment while “To Hate” is about exploring the
realness of the world and wanting to be the antidote to the hate but not
knowing how. She walks through topics of feeling pressurized into fitting
certain molds on “I Never Learn”, the misogyny in getting cat called in “Didn’t
Ask” and feeling like discussions that become too real are off limits in “Small
Talk”.

“As I was exploring all these different themes and topics
which I found pretty difficult, they shook up my own view of the world and made
me uncomfortable,” she said. “At the same time, I was exploring a safe space
where you’re allowed to tell the truth to yourself and finding that space on
your own.”

Since she was really digging into themes that she found were
more difficult for people, including her, to talk about openly, it was equal
parts enjoyable and difficult to create. A central theme that made its way
throughout the album is saying what should or could be said in the moment but
not having the guts to say it. The more she found the guts to say it out loud,
the more she wanted to show others that it can be done.

With the release of Righteous
Woman, For Esmé adds to the conversations of equal rights, loving
yourself and having the guts to say anything. The album is meant to spark
conversations and remove stereotypes of what can and can’t be talked about. Most
important, it’s a powerful work of art.